The gap no one was filling

WHY SORABIRD EXISTS

When Sellisha Lockyer experienced burnout at work, she did what she was supposed to do. She reached out for support. What she received instead was wellbeing provision that dismissed her racialised experience entirely — making her mental health worse, not better.

That experience is not uncommon. It is the norm for millions of minoritised employees who reach out for help and find that the systems designed to support them were never designed with them in mind.

Universal wellbeing models are often exclusionary, and the people they fail most are the people who need the most support.

Sellisha has spent a decade doing equality work, through campaigning, activism, and more recently as a DEI consultant. In that time she saw a consistent pattern: organisations were building diverse teams, but many were still figuring out how to build the environments those people needed to truly thrive.

Black women are now the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the UK, not because entrepreneurship chose them, but because too many workplaces failed them first. Sellisha is one of those statistics. And she decided to do something about it.

During a Buddhist retreat in the mountains of Nagano, the pieces came together. She realised her life's work was to combine her expertise in equality and inclusion with a genuine model of healing. One that didn't ask people to leave their identities at the door. Sorabird Co was founded on that realisation.

Sora means sky in Japanese. Freedom. Openness. Expanse. The Jamaican Doctor Bird, the symbol at the heart of our logo, represents resistance to oppression and the refusal to be caged. Together, they are the values Sorabird is built on: helping every person soar, from the inside out and the outside in.

WHAT WE ARE HERE TO DO

To make the world a better place, by helping people to

soar

'Inside Out' means healing our own intersecting identities - the parts of ourselves shaped by race, gender, disability, sexuality, class, and more. 'Outside in' means dismantling the systems and practices that prevent people from living and working freely. We don't believe you can do one without the other. We do both, together, now.

To make the world a better place, by helping people to soar from the inside out and the outside in.

OUR MISSION

A world where everyone is soaring.

OUR VISION

WHAT WE BELIEVE IN

The Co in Sorabird Co
stands for more than company

Four principles that guide every decision, every service, and every relationship we build.

HOW WE WORK

The Soar Framework

Standard wellbeing models treat people as if their experiences exist in isolation. They don't. Sorabird's Soar Framework is built around intersectional wellbeing, recognising that people's experiences of health, work, and healing are shaped by their overlapping identities. Drawing on anti-discriminatory practice, intersectional frameworks, and a range of healing modalities, it goes beyond psychological safety to orient towards genuine healing for individuals, for organisations, and for the systems that connect them.

INSIDE OUT

Supporting the individual

Supporting the wellbeing of intersecting identities through therapy, wellbeing sessions, assessments, and peer networks that validate lived experience and support people proactively.

OUTSIDE IN

Transforming the system

Working with organisations to reshape the cultural and structural conditions that affect everyone — through inclusion training, organisational assessments, anonymous reporting, and evidence-led recommendations.

We start with the people most underserved by existing provision and design from there. When wellbeing genuinely works for those most affected by harm, it works better for everyone.

As organisations do this work, we track their progress using the Soar Scale. This is a five stage journey from Caged to Soaring. Starting where harmful systems are so normalised they cause ongoing trauma, all the way to a place where inclusion and wellbeing are embedded, shared, and no longer require constant effort to sustain.

The Soar Model

At the heart of the Soar Framework sits the Soar Model. It recognises that every person brings a unique constellation of identities to work: race, gender, disability, sexuality, class, religion, age, and more, and that each of those identities is shaped by personal, cultural, and structural forces simultaneously. Wellbeing that doesn't account for this complexity will always leave people behind.

The Soar Model is not just a diagram, it is the backbone of everything Sorabird does. Our Inside Out and Outside In approaches are how it comes to life in practice.

Inside Out corresponds to the personal and intersectional layers at the centre of the model. It is the healing work that radiates outward from the individual, supporting people to understand, process, and reclaim their own intersecting identities. This is not about fixing people. Minoritised people do not need fixing. They need a society and spaces within that society that allow them to soar. Inside Out exists because we are all negatively impacted by harmful systemic structures and structural change takes time. People deserve genuine support while that change is happening.

Outside In corresponds to the cultural and structural layers of the model. It is the work that moves from society inward. It is a focus on reshaping systems, policies, and practices so that they enable people to soar. This is where the most important and lasting change happens.

Together Inside Out and Outside In reflect our theory of change. We support those most harmed by unjust systems while we work to change those systems. Both are necessary. Neither is sufficient alone.

The Soar Scale

Together, these tools help us understand not just where an organisation is, but what it will take to help everyone in it fly.

Ready to soar together?

Whether you're an employer, a practitioner, a funder, or someone who recognises the gap Sorabird is filling, we'd love to hear from you.